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In less than a week, two Indianapolis police officers have been shot in separate incidents — one of them fatally. While the circumstances differ, the two officers had at least one thing in common: Both were alone when gunmen took aim at them.

The first shooting involved officer Rod Bradway. About 2 a.m. Friday, he responded to a domestic disturbance at a Northwestside apartment complex. When he arrived, he heard a woman screaming inside. With no partner at his side, he faced a choice: Wait for backup or go in alone.

He went in.

A second officer in a separate squad car arrived just as Bradway forced entry, but by the time he climbed the stairs to the second-floor apartment, Bradway was on the floor, a fatal gunshot wound in his side. The second officer shot and killed Bradway’s shooter.

In a second incident, officer Gregory Stevens was responding to a report that two men were shooting at each other at an Eastside apartment building. As Stevens entered the building’s courtyard early Tuesday, Charles Williams, 22, Gary, opened fire on him, police said, striking him in the leg.

Details about the shooting were still hazy Tuesday, but officials said a second officer arrived “seconds behind” Stevens. One resident said he heard 17 gunshots.

Stevens was treated and released from Wishard Memorial Hospital. Police ultimately arrested Williams.

In many cities, those officers would have had partners at their side when the shooting began. Nearby cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio, have at least some two-officer patrol units.

Toledo, for example, sends out about a third of its patrol officers in pairs.

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“Those are generally in beat areas that have high or violent crime associated with them,” said Joe Heffernan, a Toledo police spokesman.

“Usually, our officers on afternoons and especially nights are paired up for officer safety,” said John Mirabelli, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department. “Statistics show violent incidents are much more likely and officers are much more vulnerable during those times, and the probability of handling volatile circumstances is higher.”

Still, two-officer patrols have become less common in recent years as police departments across the country grapple with tight budgets and pressure to stretch resources. The Hollywood notion of partners in police work is quickly becoming an outdated one.

In Kentucky, for example, Louisville does not use partners on patrol.

“Most of our calls for service do not require two officers to handle, which ties up manpower unnecessarily,” said Deputy Police Chief Yvette Gentry, who commands patrol services for the Louisville Metro Police Department. “Our goal is to provide a timely response and intervention when we are needed.”

Experts say research since the 1970s has shown significant benefits to single-officer patrols.

“Essentially, what the research has shown is that one-officer patrols are more resourceful, cheaper, more efficient and more effective than two,” said Jeremy Carter, an assistant professor who specializes in public safety and policing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

In other words, police departments often face a dilemma: Pair officers to help keep them safe or spread them out to improve response times.

IMPD officials emphasized that while officers are alone in their vehicles, multiple officers are dispatched on potentially dangerous runs. That includes both recent police shootings.

Carter said there’s also another less intuitive reason to consider single-officer patrols. Apparently, the presence of multiple officers can make suspects feel threatened, increasing the chances of violence.

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With single-officer patrols, “there’s actually less likelihood for confrontation,” he said.

Additionally, some questioned whether the presence of a partner would have prevented the violence of the past week.

“It’s unlikely,” said Bill Owensby, president of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police. “A doorway is an example of a fatal funnel. If a bad guy is lying in wait, there’s not much you can do.”

In fact, two-officer patrols could increase the potential for casualties in ambush situations, said Jim White, an IUPUI lecturer and former Indiana State Police trooper.

“It sounds like Bradway flat-out got ambushed,” he said. “If two officers were there, maybe two officers would have been shot.”

Indianapolis Public Safety Director Troy Riggs did not return phone calls for this story. An IMPD spokeswoman said she wouldn’t speculate on whether partners would have made a difference in either shooting.

“I’d have to do some Monday morning quarterbacking, and I’m just not going to do that,” spokeswoman Linda Jackson said. “It’s highly subjective.”

She said crime statistics show that two-officer units have no impact on crime rates. “A one-man car gets better coverage and creates better visibility,” she said.

The ability to spread the department’s limited resources is critical in a city where officer retirements have significantly outpaced new hires. A Department of Safety task force recently reported that IMPD has 1.7 officers per 1,000 people, while the national average is 2.5. IMPD would need to hire 685 officers to its current 1,550 to reach the national average.

That’s had a big impact on officer morale, according to another safety department report, which recommended hiring more officers and allocating more officers to patrol.

“Officers are more cautious about taking runs and often delay response until they have adequate backup, in order to not jeopardize their own safety,” the report said.

So far, political gridlock has frustrated hiring efforts. Both Republican Mayor Greg Ballard and City-County Council Democrats say they want to add officers, but they disagree on how to pay for them.

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Ballard also sought to ease concerns this summer when the city announced it would reassign 116 officers to beat patrols to focus on the most dangerous pockets in neighborhoods.

Owensby, the police union president, said he’s not concerned about single-officer patrols, but rather the broader problem of understaffing.

“Both of these shootings occurred when we know, statistically, that a greater amount of serious runs come out — between the hours of 7 p.m. and 3 a.m.,” he said. “In these violent encounters, two or three years ago, our officers would have had backup with them because of sufficient manpower on the street. If that were the case, who knows how things would have turned out?”

Whatever happens, efforts to add officers aren’t likely to bear much fruit in the next year. Last month, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry warned the city that half of IMPD’s officers are eligible for retirement. Even if city leaders reach a funding agreement soon, it’s likely to take several rounds of new police academy recruits to make an appreciable dent in the staffing problem.